Quote:
Originally Posted by foxyshaman
Hail and Good Morning Fellow Planeteers!!!
JustLovelyJenn I like your question. I like  and drumming and singing and journeying and meditating... preferably not all at the same time tho'.
Okay no semi seriously... I use the drum and other instruments to alter my conscious state for trance work or altered states work. I specifically like the drum for trance work as I find it quite easy to enter the state and stay in it. I also like the didjeridoo for trance work as well. The sound of it allows me the opportunity, much like the drum does, to drop into the Theta state and into the liminal state. The rattle is also, for me a very effective tool for trance work, especially if I am doing trance postures. I also use the rattle and drum in healing work. The vibrations help the body to release whatever is stuck on or in the body.
|
I have found drums in particular very useful for certain things as well. In particular in my grounding and centering. Several times a year, as a general practice, and more frequently as needed I try to spend some isolated time getting myself back to center. My favorite way to do this is by what I call trance dancing. With the use of either recorded drum music, or I have also done this IN a river... my feet planted I do a very fluid type of dancing. Moving from high to low, side to side, as if pulling from sky to ground, I am told by those who have seen me do it that it is very beautiful... This practice has become almost second nature to me over the years and is the most effective method I have found to help me keep my focus in life.
Quote:
|
I also enjoy guided meditations, I find that they allow me to access both the language and imagination parts of my brain. I also lead guided meditations which I love to do cause it is just as much a mystery to me where I am taking the room as it is to the room where they are going... <hmmm does that even make sense??>
|
Yes, this makes perfect sense.
Quote:
I have tried various times quiet meditation, but I have to admit that I can be lazy and let me mind wander. So, I use tools to get me to the places I want to go.
You mention in your post that are always in the same place but that things change. In journey work I use the same starting place, I refer to it as my anchor. From there I travel to what is commonly referred to as the three worlds, upper lower and middle. The three worlds is a common motif in shamanic practice. From my anchor then either spirit takes me to a particular place, or I have a specific task which requires me to go to a specific land to travel through.
|
That description really clicks with me and the process sounds similar. I have moved on from the beginning point in my dream in many way. Remaining myself and walking, transforming into a hawk and seeing things from a different view, and also from a third person perspective, as if I were watching myself and everything that happened to me without the ability to influence it.
Please never stop just because its going to get technical. While I have been told that what I do is correct, often advanced, and reliably accurate... I lack much of the language and terms for how to talk about it. When I first started my exploration and journey to this path, a mentor gave me the book
Teen Witch, by Silver Ravenwolf (I was 18 at the time). She has remained a dear friend, and one of my "mom"s to this day. She often set and discussed things with me as I learned and very early on she made a comment that I knew things I should not. It has always been that way. I often know how to do something, or what to do... but I do not know what it is called, or in some cases, how I am doing it. The second I have learned to figure out... the first, takes guidance or tremendous amounts of research to accomplish.